I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Warrior Cats animation, and to be honest, it's passed me by a little up until now, though I suspect I was picturing something closer to the glossy CG animals we've seen in recent animated films like GOAT and the hugely successful Zootopia 2. But these animated cat designs have gone in a more interesting direction, pushing feline anatomy, movement and expression, and I'm much more curious about the finished series as a result.
Original Force, the studio leading production alongside series director Rodrigo Blaas, has shown off a batch of work-in-progress material from the series, including character designs, storyboards, animation tests and a preview film, and the early artwork has a loose feel I didn’t expect from a big CG adaptation, and joins Pixar’s Gatto in trying something new.
The three character designs for Sandpaw, Rusty and Graypaw are a good example, as they all start from the same basic feline anatomy, but the artists have pushed the proportions, faces, markings and silhouettes enough that you can tell them apart immediately. The eyes are particularly expressive, while the bodies have that slightly elongated, springy quality that makes the cats feel ready to move rather than simply stand around looking pretty.
Designing personality in Warrior Cats
The storyboard work, my favourite of the new behind-the-scenes images released so far, shows the cats being thrown into big, exaggerated poses, with legs stretched out, tails curling around the action, and bodies twisting in ways that would be unreal. That's exactly why it works, I thought, because good animation needs a little licence with anatomy, especially when characters are fighting, running or reacting to something, and the trick is pushing those shapes without losing the feline character underneath.
That's something Original Force says the team has worked on from the start, looking at skeletal structure, fur, movement, character silhouettes and camera language, with a particular focus on keeping the cats readable during fast action. When you're dealing with hundreds of creators and thousands of shots, those decisions have to become more than good ideas in a concept artist's sketchbook; they need to become a visual language everyone working on the series can actually follow.
These early drawings reveal the rules being worked out in real time: how far a cat can stretch before it stops looking like a cat, how much expression you can put into a face before it becomes too human, and how much personality can come from the way a character moves. With Warrior Cats, it’s a unique approach, though not too different from many animations, because these aren't meant to be ordinary animals wandering around a photorealistic forest. The books' appeal comes from the cats' strong personalities, and the animation has to make those personalities visible without turning them into furry little humans.
If the finished animation can hold onto some of that expressive energy, rather than smoothing everything into generic CG perfection, Warrior Cats might have found a strong visual identity.
Visit the Warrior Cats website for more on the animation, books, games, and more.
